5/10/2021
In One of the Oldest Congresses Ever, the Democrats Majority May Depend on Good Health Historians in the News
On March 21, 1950, an Illinois congressman named Ralph Church suddenly slumped in his seat while testifying before a House committee. His colleagues rushed to administer aid, but he was pronounced dead of a heart attack at 66.
He was neither the first nor the last member of Congress to die in office. “You look back in history, nearly one in 10 members of Congress have,” said Jane L. Campbell, president of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society.
That history has some Democrats worried that deaths or illnesses could derail President Biden’s efforts to pass ambitious bills through Congress, which his party controls by the narrowest margins in decades.
McCarthy Sets Wednesday Vote on Ouster of Liz Cheney
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May 13, 2021, 8:51 a.m. ETMay 13, 2021, 8:51 a.m. ET
The top House Republican portrays the party’s purge of a powerful critic of Donald Trump as the forward-looking move of a “big tent party.” President Biden defends federal unemployment benefits but says workers must accept suitable offers.
Representative Elise Stefanik of New York is seeking to become the No. 3 House Republican.Credit.Erik S Lesser/EPA, via Shutterstock
Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the top House Republican, on Monday defended his move to oust Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming as the party’s No. 3 leader, portraying the purge of the most powerful Republican critic of Donald J. Trump as the forward-looking move of a “big tent party.”